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Ithaqua posted:We've disagreed in the past, but this is a statement that I wholeheartedly agree with! Intro CS isn't that tough. It gets thorny in the 300/400 level classes, though! I'll never forgive my compilers and interpreters class for dragging my GPA down. The professor was awesome and died recently, though, so I forgive him. For me that was the theory of computing class. The prof had the ability to make things make perfect logical sense and seem really easy - then when you go to review the notes it was like "WTF? This makes no sense at all". Scraped by that one with a C-.
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Aug 6, 2011 10:59
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brainwrinkle posted:I'm going to be a Junior in CS at my university this coming year and I've had an internship both summers so far. The whole point of your degree will be learning about CS theories and coding so I wouldn't stress out about that aspect. If you've had programming experience in high school you'll probably be ahead of 2/3 of your classmates. I assume you took the AP CompSci test? The material in AP CS is pretty similar to entry level CS courses, but the courses are more rigorous. To brush up on your skills I would just suggest the general programming for fun challenge things like Project Euler. Yes, I did take the APCS test, and I actually found out about Project Euler from reading CoC a while ago and have been doing that for about a month. I'll definitely go to all of the job fairs and work on a resume. I really want to have some practical experience first, but I'm not quite sure how to get myself involved. I've heard that for research I need to show genuine interest and show up to office hours to let the professors know that I want to help. However, I have no idea where to start when it comes to open source projects. My school has IEEE and ACM chapters, but I'm not sure how active they are. I'll look into them. Thank you for the advice. Edit: I forgot to mention, I've also been preparing with MIT Open Courseware, specifically this class. This hasn't been too challenging for me, so I'm not worried about my classes, I'm mostly concerned with getting practical experience and being prepared for internships and research. Holy John fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Aug 6, 2011 |
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Aug 6, 2011 17:45
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Holy John posted:Yes, I did take the APCS test, and I actually found out about Project Euler from reading CoC a while ago and have been doing that for about a month. I wouldn't even worry about technical/practical experience, that's what internships are *for*. As far as getting an internship, you need to do three things: - Know people that know useful people. - Shave, shower, brush your teeth and wear decent clothes. - Be able to talk to people and present yourself well. You don't have to know everything, just be prepared to learn and have a certain baseline level of knowledge. (Good grades will also help, but knowing people and being able to get along with them will go further than good grades.)
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Aug 6, 2011 23:20
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I'm a fresh grad. I had an interview today, where everything went really well, but... First, I only applied out of desperation because they were asking for (paraphrasing cause I forgot to save the URL and don't wanna browse all the Craigslist offers): quote:*0-4 years of experience as a programmer I was upfront when I contacted them about having never even seen Delphi source code, and only having completed an example app in ASP.NET, but they called me in anyway. As it turns out, they didn't need any of that stuff. They barely even needed a programmer. They said they wanted someone to learn Delphi and do juniory maintenance stuff. After doing the HR interview, I met with a programmer who just told me the info from the previous sentence, asked me if I knew SQL, if I knew what a JOIN was, and that's it. That JOIN quetion was the closest thing to a technical test there was. I figured maybe there would be a 2nd more technical interview, but when I asked the HR person said no, that the director would return from vacation next week and would likely hire me. It's definitely raising the sorts of flags you guys warn about, but it will help my career more than staying at home would. MachinTrucChose fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Aug 10, 2011 |
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Aug 10, 2011 00:39
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MachinTrucChose posted:I'm a fresh grad. I had an interview today, where everything went really well, but...
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Aug 10, 2011 01:06
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I'm in Montreal and been looking for work since June. I've been searching for junior .NET or even C++ positions (I applied to this one because it mentioned VB.NET and C#) but no one has low enough experience requirements for me. There's about 1 new offer a day, usually out of my skillset or experience or both. I've been told that there will be more opportunities in September when everyone's back from vacation and are looking to hire, but what if I pass this and still don't get find anything next month? What I'm wondering is, what the hell is happening to all the other new grads, the ones who came out of uni with just core C/C++ knowledge? I have a year of experience from before uni and I can't find anything. Are they all learning C#/Java/ASP.NET/Reporting services on their own time while they work at McDonalds?
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Aug 10, 2011 01:39
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Considering all the bullshit currently around "Unemployed people please do not apply" statements in job ads, I would take the job if only for that.
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Aug 10, 2011 02:52
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What the hell? Why would a company not hire unemployed people?
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Aug 10, 2011 03:08
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Ensign Expendable posted:What the hell? Why would a company not hire unemployed people? Because P(X is a good employee| X is employed) is significantly greater than P(X is a good employee | X is unemployed) which is close to zero.
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Aug 10, 2011 03:12
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Ensign Expendable posted:What the hell? Why would a company not hire unemployed people? http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/16/news/economy/unemployed_need_not_apply/index.htm It's appalling, but the general gist is, "Well if they were a quality candidate they would already be employed so clearly  "
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Aug 10, 2011 03:13
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Chasiubao posted:Considering all the bullshit currently around "Unemployed people please do not apply" statements in job ads, I would take the job if only for that. I've never seen that listed in a job ad anywhere. The most I've seen is asking for local candidates only, and/or that no sponsorships are available. But then again I haven't really looked seriously since about 3-4 weeks ago.
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Aug 10, 2011 09:11
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Mike1o1 posted:I've never seen that listed in a job ad anywhere. The most I've seen is asking for local candidates only, and/or that no sponsorships are available. But then again I haven't really looked seriously since about 3-4 weeks ago. I think it's somewhat implied. When getting 200-400 resumes for a single job posting you need some sort criteria to get the pile down to a manageable level. Since a lot of people are unemployed that is a good place to start. Plus shrughes logic is sound even (to a business person) even if it's not correct. When hiring you aren't trying to find the very best out of the 400 applicants but someone who is good enough given the time you can invest into the hiring process.
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Aug 10, 2011 15:41
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Mike1o1 posted:I've never seen that listed in a job ad anywhere. The most I've seen is asking for local candidates only, and/or that no sponsorships are available. But then again I haven't really looked seriously since about 3-4 weeks ago. I haven't seen it either but I don't think it's that common, or as common, in programmer job ads. The "applicant haz job" bit is irrelevant when put next to "this person has actual code on github that doesn't suck" or the "he mentioned Haskell on his resume" or other more useful indicators.
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Aug 10, 2011 16:00
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Are you for real? I remember watching a French comedy where a guy is looking for a job, and the person interviewing him goes "You know, you have a great CV, it's just...That word, unemployed *makes disgusted face*. You understand, right?" (The guy responds "I'll go find a job, then I'll come back to see you.") I never thought this was actually a thing.
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Aug 10, 2011 17:25
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MachinTrucChose posted:I never thought this was actually a thing. Yeah, I am for real, this is a thing. See http://www.google.com/search?q=hiring+unemployed
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Aug 10, 2011 17:35
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MachinTrucChose posted:I'm a fresh grad. I had an interview today, where everything went really well, but... It does raise some flags, but with your experience levels you can't afford to be too picky. The key questions you should ask yourself are: "Would they pay enough to keep me above water?" "Can I tough out a semi-crap job for (say) 2 years - long enough to get some more experience and long enough that moving on doesn't look suspicious?" (maybe others will disagree, but only spending short periods of time in a job can raise flags for those looking at your CV)
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Aug 10, 2011 21:41
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Milotic posted:"Can I tough out a semi-crap job for (say) 2 years - long enough to get some more experience and long enough that moving on doesn't look suspicious?" (maybe others will disagree, but only spending short periods of time in a job can raise flags for those looking at your CV) I've never really understood this advice. Sure, having a year or two of experience at one place is going to give you a higher probability of landing that second job, but surely that probability is still non-zero even if your resume says something like "3 months doing [job I hate]". Can it really hurt to have three months at your first job followed by a year or two at your second job? Or even three months at one and three months at another? It seems like in the best case, you get a better job earlier, and in the worst case, you have to stick with your current job until you've been there long enough to seem like a good hire to someone else. Basically, I don't see why you wouldn't take the job and just keep applying to new ones until you get the job you want.
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Aug 11, 2011 05:54
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Safe and Secure! posted:I've never really understood this advice. Sure, having a year or two of experience at one place is going to give you a higher probability of landing that second job, but surely that probability is still non-zero even if your resume says something like "3 months doing [job I hate]"... It can mean you didn't research your the job, or didn't understand what was being offered, or maybe had too high aspirations about what level of responsibility you would have, or whatever. Your next potential employer is going to be wary of that. We recently turned down someone who was a technically OK candidate, but we were uncomfortable that he hadn't really thought through his first job, so we were worried he wouldn't with his second - he also gave that impression in interviews.
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Aug 11, 2011 06:52
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Ensign Expendable posted:What the hell? Why would a company not hire unemployed people? The theory is that if you were actually a great employee (and not an average or below-average one) your company wouldn't have laid you off.
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Aug 11, 2011 13:32
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Don't people quit their jobs by themselves all the time?
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Aug 11, 2011 13:44
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IMlemon posted:Don't people quit their jobs by themselves all the time? Nobody likes a quitter, IMlemon. *moves cigar to other side of mouth*
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Aug 11, 2011 13:55
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IMlemon posted:Don't people quit their jobs by themselves all the time? Generally they're moving to another job if they're doing that, or alternatively they are financially retarded.
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Aug 11, 2011 14:20
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baquerd posted:Generally they're moving to another job if they're doing that, or alternatively they are financially retarded. Or they just don't feel like working.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:07
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What do you think of companies that train first then ship you out to work for their clients? Here's an example posting I found http://seeker.dice.com/jobsearch/se...campaign=Indeed Would something like this pay well? Is it worth it? Does the training cost money/do I get paid during the training? I'm sure it depends on the company but I'm sort of hesitant to apply to one of these since I already went through a Bachelor's Computer Science program.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:17
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shrughes posted:Or they just don't feel like working.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:20
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shrughes posted:Or they just don't feel like working. I forgot about retirees, yeah.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:22
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Plorkyeran posted:"gets bored and quits when they have enough money to live for a while" generally isn't considered a positive If you don't want your employees to quit out of boredom, don't give them boring work. Problem solved 
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Aug 11, 2011 19:32
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Puddy1 posted:What do you think of companies that train first then ship you out to work for their clients? Here's an example posting I found http://seeker.dice.com/jobsearch/se...campaign=Indeed If it isn't some sort of scam, it sounds like there has to be a slew of grants and funding that are being exploited here, which makes me think this isn't going to work out in the best interests of the contractor-employee. That and they sound like they're recruiting previously educated individuals to educate... and throwing around buzzwords and PHDs from Stanford, Goldman Sachs, etc. And specifically seeking international students (culturally naive, lots of money) seems like a HUGE flag to me.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:37
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baquerd posted:Generally they're moving to another job if they're doing that, or alternatively they are financially retarded. ...or they're facing a personal crisis (family illness etc) that means they have no time to work.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:38
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TasteMyHouse posted:...or they're facing a personal crisis (family illness etc) that means they have no time to work. We don't have sissy leave in America, there's sick time for that.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:51
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...or they just want a few months off. There's nothing wrong with taking time off for personal reasons, travel, leisure, etc. You don't need to be 'retarded' to want to have a summer off after working hard for a few years.
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Aug 11, 2011 19:57
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Orzo posted:...or they just want a few months off. There's nothing wrong with taking time off for personal reasons, travel, leisure, etc. You don't need to be 'retarded' to want to have a summer off after working hard for a few years. Taking a summer off when you are say, 35 means you lose at least 1/4 of your annual income that year (assuming you can get a company to hire you quickly when you want a job again at a similar wage and don't have to settle for less money or wait another 3 months finding a position). Not only do you lose 1/4 of your income, you also need to eat your savings. Assuming you're a pretty good saver and are saving 25% of your monthly income every month, your other expenses (75% of your monthly income) will eat up 3 months of savings every month you don't have income. So by taking 3 months off you have just conservatively thrown away an entire year of savings with the above numbers if you live as you are accustomed to.
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Aug 11, 2011 20:04
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Orzo posted:...or they just want a few months off. There's nothing wrong with taking time off for personal reasons, travel, leisure, etc. You don't need to be 'retarded' to want to have a summer off after working hard for a few years. Maybe it's just my experience but most places (I've seen) will let you take a leave of absence to do this, you don't have to straight up quit. We've had several folks do this.
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Aug 11, 2011 20:04
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baquerd posted:So by taking 3 months off you have just conservatively thrown away an entire year of savings with the above numbers if you live as you are accustomed to. Which doesn't make you retarded. People are allowed to spend their money on what makes them happy and aren't required to follow your personal financial plan.
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Aug 11, 2011 20:13
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Smugdog Millionaire posted:Which doesn't make you retarded. People are allowed to spend their money on what makes them happy and aren't required to follow your personal financial plan. Well, if you're anywhere closing in on retirement it's not so bad. A year's worth of savings in your mid 20's could literally be a half million dollars or more by retirement if you didn't do your 3 month splurge.
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Aug 11, 2011 20:17
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That argument is wrong in so many ways, I don't even know where to start. I could just as easily call you out for not working 2 jobs right now. LOL, you're trying to tell me you don't work nights? Okay, you're literally throwing away millions of dollars. Who cares about personal happiness or sanity?
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Aug 11, 2011 20:29
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Orzo posted:That argument is wrong in so many ways, I don't even know where to start. I could just as easily call you out for not working 2 jobs right now. LOL, you're trying to tell me you don't work nights? Okay, you're literally throwing away millions of dollars. Who cares about personal happiness or sanity? I work 24 hours a day between SA posts and refilling my caffeine IV drip. Not saying you can't have a break, I am saying that quitting your job for several months has the same financial impact of splurging all your savings money for an entire year (while working). You should always consider long-term financial impact of a major decision like that, and if you think saving enough for retirement is easy you're making at least mid six figures all by yourself.
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Aug 11, 2011 20:50
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baquerd posted:and if you think saving enough for retirement is easy you're making at least mid six figures all by yourself.
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Aug 11, 2011 21:04
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Orzo posted:This is complete bullshit if by 'mid six figures' you mean ~500k. Families with a combined income of less than 100k are able to do fine saving for retirement. So a couple that brings in, say, 180, is going to have a hard time retiring if they take 3 months off? Sorry, my language was off there. I meant ~150k. If you live in a rural area or are comfortable living in one for retirement, your costs may be much less. If you want to retire at 55 or 65 or whatever you've got an entirely different game than if you're intending to work to 75. Everyone needs to take their own plans into consideration. On a strictly financial level, don't take a break.
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Aug 11, 2011 21:10
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baquerd posted:On a strictly financial level, don't take a break. Yes, but on a strictly financial level, always take the job with higher pay and less vacation and more total compensation and also work multiple jobs and live in the cheapest housing possible and ...
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Aug 11, 2011 21:14
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